-Bad End-

A/N: Honestly, I wrote this because I was sick and tired of all of the depressing, blood splattered angst fics where Flaky is just a quivering lump and Good Flippy is boring as hell. Not only is she one of the kindest characters, but Flaky is extremely brave in the show. I don't know why people always portray her to be so weak all the time.

This story will include...

-FlippyXFlaky ship with substance

-Many minor instances other characters shipped with Flaky, including Splendid, Splendont, and Lifty/Shifty

-Mature content such as violence, gore, swearing

-Personified HTF characters that aren't in high school

Clarifications:

-Takes place in a futuristic setting where full-immersion technology is possible

-For those who don't know, a dating sim (short for simulation) is a type of visual novel that focuses on achieving a romantic relationship with one of the characters

I Remember You

Flaky choked on her own scream, producing only a sick gurgling from within her throat. Must be the blood. She could feel it bubbling in her mouth, running down her chin and cooling her heated skin.

Her murderer ran a fingertip down her jawline. Flippy's yellow eyes, fixated, gleamed in the half-light. "So pretty..." he cooed. "...it matches your lovely hair."

The red-head's vision blurred momentarily. Oh god. She hoped that meant she could die already, get this whole thing over with. Flaky couldn't feel it when Flippy lifted her hand, pressing her palm against his mouth. The veteran nibbled on her knuckles as he traced lazy circles of blood on her cheekbone.

He was saying something, but Flaky could scarcely hear beyond the muted rushing that filled her ears. "...kinda makes me wish..." Flippy was no more than a green smear. "...we could've played longer..."

A wash of static, followed by darkness. Flippy was gone, replaced by two words, stark white against the black. 'Bad End.'

The credits began to roll, and Flaky tore off her visor as if it had burned her. The pastel interior of the simulation pod was a welcome sight after all... that. The college student fisted her hands over her hammering heart, taking a moment to regulate her breathing. "Wow," Flaky whispered. "They weren't kidding when they said it'd be like real life. Thought I was a goner for a second there..."

The calm, vaguely electronic tones of the AI filled the pod. "You were in no danger, miss," he reassured her.

The young woman gave a nervous laugh, waving off the robot's comment. "Heh, I-I knew that!" She insisted. "That's the third time he's killed me, too! You'd think he'd softened up by now."

A pause. "Miss, Flippy is the antagonist. He is not a date-able character in this simulation."

Flaky ran a shaking hand through her hair, combing out the knots from her visor. Helmet-head wasn't the most attractive thing, even when no one was there to see her. "When I signed up to beta they told me to go after whoever I liked. Isn't that the whole point of a dating sim?"

"Flippy is programmed to kill the protagonist." AI's voice was devoid of passion or sympathy. "If you wish to beat the game you will need to pursue a date-able character."

The redhead sighed. These new fancy 5-D games were beyond her understanding. Actually, the purpose behind all computer games was shadowed in mystery.

She liked Flippy; his blushy gruff exterior was cute and he didn't hold back when they played baseball together. Granted, it was fake baseball, but if it was real he wouldn't be programmed to do squat. In reality she could've negotiated him out of killing her... or something. Anything.

Computer games took options from you.

Flaky sighed, squeezing her eyes shut. "So I'm only payed if I complete the game?"

"Correct."

How stupid. Well, she'd already wasted enough time in this dumb pod. Might as well pick someone easy and give Flippy a wide berth this time around. Who cared if she preferred him? She was a starving college student, darn it, and he was a game character!

Brow furrowed in determination, Flaky slid the visor over her head. Instant blackness.

This time the voice of the AI spoke directly into her ear. "Activating headwear. Please wait."

A dim light flickered in the corner of the college student's peripheral vision. "Activation successful. Plugging into nervous system. Please stay seated." There was a faint prick at the base of Flaky's skull, on the back of her neck.

"Nervous system online. Proceed at any time."

Flaky deflated, heaving a soft sigh of relief. The connection was always painless, but the idea that a machine could have access to her neuro signals was just nerve-wracking. Literally, haha.

Her fingers were inches from the start switch when suddenly the audio feed erupted into an explosion of static.

UNKNOWN ERROR... UNKNOWN ERROR... SYSTEM FAILURE...

Big red warnings flashed across Flaky's vision. She flailed, struggling with the visor, but was already loosing touch with reality. The sensations of her earthly body faded away with the words as her world reduced to a swirl of binary that was the Happy Tree Friends beta loading frame.

Flaky sank into the numbers... then into nothingness.

The scent of crushed grass swamped her sense of smell. Before she opened her eyes, Flaky could feel every individual blade tickling her exposed skin. Her shirt had ridden up, exposing her midsection to the blazing sun.

Calm tones of the AI. "Sunday afternoon. Spawn point: Happy Tree Town park. From this point on, gameplay cannot be paused. Guides and stats may be accessed only with complete avatar shut down. Enjoy your 5 dimensional experience." The recording ended with a click.

Flaky frowned, squinting her eyelids open to peer up at Happy Tree Town's clear summer sky. Huh. Past the error warnings, nothing seemed particularly unusual about the start of this session. Maybe it wasn't anything important? She was a beta-tester, after all. The game was bound to have bugs at some point.

The twenty year old yawned, peeling herself off the ground with heavy limbs. She had to admit this neuro-tech stuff was pretty neat. Basically, in real life people were just brains interacting with the world through mobile meat machines. Neuro-tech simply replaced the feed from the meat machine with one from an actual machine. Direct mental stimulation, and all that.

A high, distinctly feminine voice. "Hey Flaky! Come eat with us!"

The redhead jumped at the use of her name, hauling herself into a sitting position in time to see a pink haired girl waving her down from across the park.

Flaky's eyes widened in recognition. Giggles, the programmed childhood friend, in all her girly bow-wearing glory. The ponytailed girl jogged up the grassy slope, huge grin adorning her pretty face. "Heard you were back in town. Knew I'd find you here," she laughed, leaning closer to tug on one of Flaky's hands. "Look at you! I haven't seen you since high school, but you haven't changed a bit!"

Oh how painfully true that was. Flaky grimaced, glancing down at herself for the first time. She was so tiny even her shorts and tank top bagged out on her. Oh, but Giggles was still waiting for a response.

Flaky wanted to smack herself. She really was no good at these games. "Err, yeah. It's nice seeing you too, Giggles! How's Petunia?"

According to the game, Petunia had been an older sister type figure to her and Giggles when they were younger. Flaky had met her once or twice the other times she had played, and taken a liking to the dark-haired girl's prim and tidy ways.

"Come see for yourself!" The squirrelly girl beside her increased the tugging. "We're having a picnic on the tables over there, and there's a lot of people I want you to meet!"

Flaky had probably met all of the people during her previous play-throughs, but it's not like she was about to say anything about that. Nobody ever remembered her when the game reset. The redhead sucked in a breath. Man, this game was going to be hard, especially now she had decided to play to win. "Sure, let's go!"

After Giggles hauled Flaky up, the two walked across the park with arms linked. The pink haired girl was as bursting with energy as always, chattering on and on about "you've missed so much!" and "I'm so happy you're back!". Flaky smiled and nodded occasionally, but truth be told the small student was feeling increasingly out of her element. What if she messed up and said something stupid? Would Giggles still act so excited to see her?

They rounded a hill and Flaky's mouth dropped open. Picnic? People were everywhere; talking and wandering from one food-laden table to the next. She could see a game of Frisbee running in the background, and the sounds of amicable chatter and laughter filled the summer air.

Giggles took one look at Flaky's shocked expression, and promptly burst into a peal of hysterical laughter. "Don't look so surprised, it's just a picnic party!"

The redhead blinked, making a futile attempt to swallow. "I-I'm not surprised! It's just… big crowds kinda freak me out…." Face heating, Flaky crossed her arms. Was it too much to ask to spawn with more clothing? Suddenly that huge tank top and those baggy shorts that fell to her knees left way too much skin exposed to the open.

"Oi Giggles, where'd you go?" A boy with fluffy blonde hair popped up in front of the two girls, Frisbee in hand. The pink haired girl blushed immediately. "A-ah, I was just picking up my friend here. Flaky, this is Cuddles."

Cuddles huffed, chain bracelets clinking as he passed the disk from hand to hand. For such a cute looking guy, he sure seemed… kinda rough and tumble. Several piercings flashed in his ears, and what were those things on his feet?

The boy raised an eyebrow, and Flaky had to bite back a squeak. Oh no, he'd caught her looking! "Wondering about these?: He gestured to his pair of ridiculous pink bunny slippers, and shrugged. "They're comfy. Just didn't feel like taking 'em off this morning." The stiff line of his mouth burst into a huge twinkling grin when he turned to Giggles. "Hey, hey, you wanna come play with us?" Cuddles shifted from foot to slippered foot. "Or, you know, we could just hang out or... something."

So that's how it was. Flaky gave her preprogrammed friend a knowing look. She supposed that Cuddles was a dateable character, but from the looks of it, the main challenge to getting a good end with him would be to win him from Giggles. The redhead shuddered at the thought. Thanks, but no thanks. Girl fights were scary as heck, and Giggles was her friend.

The pink haired girl's eyes flew wide open. "I'd love to!" she exclaimed, before clapping her hands over her mouth, and sending a panicked glance towards Flaky. "U-uh, wait, I can't leave Flaky by herself…." Giggles sighed, and dropped her arms. "I'm gonna have to take a rain check, sorry."

Cuddles' hopeful expression fell, and Flaky felt a pang of guilt shoot straight through her chest. Just because she sucked at this whole romance thing didn't mean she had to go and ruin Giggles' too. And who was she to be all scared of the crowds when all of this was just a game? She should have a little more confidence in herself.

With that, the redhead puffed out her chest, raising herself to her full (yet still depressing) height. "I can take care of myself, Giggles. Don't let me hold you back."

Giggles' fine eyebrows scrunched together. "Are you sure?"

"Yeah. Definitely. I might find some people from high school, and hang out with them or something." A lie. Giggles and Petunia were the only two people here she was programmed to already know. Flaky preferred to be honest, but if a friend's happiness was at stake then a little untruth never hurt anyone.

And from the looks of it, this one did its job. Giggles laughed, giving Flaky a grateful smile. "Thanks Flaky. Just find me if you need anything, and make sure to say goodbye before you up and vanish, kay?" Flaky nodded, and waved as Cuddles latched on to her friend's wrist and towed her towards the paused Frisbee game.

The student turned back to face the… picnic party. There was so many people. It was like the entirety of Happy Tree Town had showed up for the event. Que nervous laugh. She was so doomed.

His voice came from nowhere. "I saw that, you know."

Flaky 'eeped!', leaping nearly a foot in the air before whirling to face this new surprise. Man, this game sure loved to spice things up. Her heart was just about ready to thunder out of her chest!

A familiar figure stood leaning the entirety of his long body against a nearby tree trunk, arms crossed in the picture of nonchalance. Flaky had to tilt her head upwards to meet his cool gray eyes, angular face framed by untidy green hair. Flippy. Oh lord.

The veteran took one look at her huge doe-eyes and frightened expression before turning away, pink tingeing his cheekbones. His lips curled into a scowl. "You don't have to be so afraid of me. It's polite to at least try to hide it." Ack! He looked so mortified! Flaky's small mouth dropped into a perfect 'o'. She didn't want to give him the wrong impression! Her eyebrows flew up as she scurried towards him, arms flailing. "N-no, that's not it at all! Really, you only just startled me! I'm so sorry!"

Grey eyes widened momentarily before narrowing. "Why are you apologizing? You didn't do anything." Flaky could only stare, and Flippy squirmed under her scrutiny. "A-anyways, I should be the one saying sorry. Didn't mean to surprise you."

"Ah, don't be! It happens all the time, to be honest." She was making a fool of herself. Flaky fought the urge to bury her face in her hands and never come out.

Flippy's scowl only deepened, and pushed himself off the tree trunk, patches of sunlight and shadow dancing over his handsome features. He glowered down at her, and Flaky quailed. Of course he had to be one of the first people to approach her! What happened to the avoid-and-go-after-someone-easier plan?

A faint, flashing light blinked at Flaky in the corner of her vision, capturing her attention from the dating sim's main antagonist. Flippy was opening his mouth -to say something, probably- but she had to strain to see what had to be tiny pixelated letters.

"Listen, I know this sounds weird, but…" They were capitalized, and growing bolder by the second, flashing over and over in bright scarlet. Whoa. That couldn't be good.

Flippy swallowed, and raked a hand through his green locks. Flaky briefly focused on him before the words grew large enough to engulf the majority of her sight. The message was now blazingly clear. SYSTEM ERROR… SYSTEM ERROR… The young man took a few steps towards her, grey eyes boring into her own. SYSTEM ERROR…

"…is your name Flaky? Why do I feel like I know you from somewhere?" SYSTEM ERROR... The warning screamed across the redhead's visual.

Oh no. The glitch in the game. SYSTEM ERROR… D-Did Flippy remember her!? Crudnuggets. She had pursued him in all of her other play-throughs. W-Would he remember those too? Flaky froze, sorely tempted to faint, or run screaming, or something.

Might as well die now and get it over with.

Disclaimer: I don't own jack crap.

A/N: I'm sorry if the plot is confusing, or if the ending seemed rushed. Please review if you liked it and/or have any questions.